Nice post, with good reasoning. I particularly like the above quote. Never quite thought about it in these terms before.

As, I think, both Jon and Ewen are saying, Aikido has/is creating a distinct path through a sometimes hostile universe, that deals with handling combat/conflict in such a way as to minimize damage, as much as possible to both conflicting parties, and, going further, attempting to establish principles/methods such that any potential confrontations can be recognized/mediated before reaching the combat/conflict state.